We’ve all been on great training courses. The stuff you learnt was great, the trainer was great and you left the day thinking, ‘That was great!”.

Six months later, the slides are still sitting your drawer and you’ll get to them one day because the training was great. Sadly, in an impromptu desk tidy-up, you reluctantly throw the slides in the bin. Regretfully and not without thought, the slides, and the scribbled notes are thrown away. Or maybe just one last flick through to convince yourself that there is nothing worth keeping and then 8 hours spent sitting on a training course, in the bin.

You spent 8 hours sitting on a training course when you were already busy, the company spent money for you to do so and you know that you want to be better because of that phrase you’ve heard, ‘If you’re not moving forwards, you’re moving backwards”, but all to waste. Here are 5 ways of ‘How to Make the Most from the Training Slides in Your Drawer’ because you know that the learnings can help you:

1. Turn the slides into a one page summary

The reason we keep the slides is because they have all the notes that we made on the training course. The reason we throw away the slides is because there is simply too much to go through. Set aside 20 minutes and write down a summary of bullet points or create a mind map of the key ‘take outs’ from the slides. This is an 80:20 approach, knowing that you’ll glean 80% of the information that you need in 20% of the time. This one page will be a reference page that you will look at in the future because it contains only the rich learnings that you need.

2. Discuss the slides over lunch with a colleague

Agree to meet a colleague for lunch, who was on the same training course, and discuss the slides. This will help resurrect the learnings from the training course and you’ll find a renewed motivation to use what you learnt.

Find out more about how ‘Sticky Learning ®‘ will avoid the ‘slides in a drawer problem’.

3. Teach someone else what you learnt

By teaching someone else what you learnt on the course will have two benefits. Firstly, you will be ‘forced’ to put into your own words the learnings, which in turn will help you recall what your learnt and secondly your colleague will benefit from your training and they’ll ask you questions, which will challenge your recall further.

4. Call the training provider and ask for a refresher

Arrange a 20 minute call with the training provider and ask them to run a 121 20 minute refresher over the phone. Most training providers will be happy to do this because they want to help you to use your learnings.

5. Review the most important section

Identify the most important section of the training course and keep this, throw away the rest. Add this section to your reading pile. Review the slides, with your scribbled notes and identify 3 actions that you will now do as a result of these learnings, and then throw away this section.

To avoid having to do the above 5 actions, use Sticky Learning ® to ensure that your people get the very most from their learning.

What top tip do you have that would help other people? Please share your view by commenting below.

About Darren A. Smith

Darren has been working in the world of UK Supermarkets and Suppliers for over 20 years. He began his career as a buyer at one of the big 4 UK supermarkets and after rising through the ranks he decided to leave after 13 years and set-up Making Business Matter. For the last 14 years he has run MBM, which is a training provider to the UK grocery industry. Helping suppliers to the big four supermarkets to develop the soft skills that will secure them more profitable wins.

3 Comments

I’ve found point 3 is what I use most or find the most useful. By teaching someone else you are essentially explaining and teaching yourself again which created a better memory of this. Always good to know what to do with leftover slides, really helpful article.